"There were times that I laid in the hospital bed, and I wished that I would have died on the street in Iraq," Jernigan recalled.

He was able to bounce back, but many aren't. Every day, 22 veterans kill themselves. That's a suicide every 65 minutes.

Dr. Patrick Link, a psychiatrist with UCLA, said suicide rates went up for both deployed and non-deployed service members since 2004.

"A surprisingly large number of soldiers are coming into the army with psychiatric problems," Link said.

About one in four soldiers suffers from at least one psychiatric problem, and about one in three attempted suicides are associated with mental disorders before joining the Army.

Other risk factors include being male, being white, a low rank, and a low education level. Link said better screening and support for managing stress are needed.

"Ideally, you would like to have people be so resilient to stress that it actually improves their lives instead of makes them worse," he explained.

Jernigan co-founded a program called Paws for Patriots to help place service dogs with veterans. Now, he helps the 22-kill initiative raise awareness about veteran suicide.

"We try to support them and empower them," said Jernigan.

Even though he's had his share of hard times, he said he wouldn't change it.

"The whole thing, I'd do it all over again," Jernigan said. "I really would."

Suicide rates among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were roughly 30 per 100,000. Rates for civilian suicides in the same age and demographics were about 19 per 100,000. The study also found women have lower suicide rates than men in the Army except during deployments.

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